Canvas vs. Litmos vs. Moodle

It is really well suited for school situations like knowing what [assignments] need to be done when, getting feedback, getting points, finding the slides that the teacher used for explaining an [assignment] or theory. I think It would be less suited in business situations because it's [primarily] made to be a [one-way] communication tool for schools. Businesses need more control on individual levels I think[.]

Incentivized

For us, Litmos does what we need it to do. It houses all of our training in one place and allows us to send it out to our entire staff quickly and easily. The only area we really struggle is with eSignatures. We use this feature for memos, but instead of using the actual eSignature, we use an assessment because it gives us the ability to lock it after one attempt so that someone doesn't log back in and show that it's no longer signed.

Incentivized

Moodle is great for any environment where a class or other learning activity needs to be completed in an asynchronous manner. It can be used to post information, create interactive threads for discussion, issue quiz and exam work with grading, track and grade progress, and keep track of attendance. It is an overall wonderful solution for managing asynchronous learning.

• Creativity options for teachers to create a virtual space that still has fun graphics and accessibility options.
• Canvas has versatility in viewing options for assignment due dates such as the calendar built in feature as well as the dashboard options to display upcoming and due assignments.
• Allowing teachers to create community with each other and collaborate in each-other's space.
• Discussion platforms within classrooms for students to communicate with each-other and with their teachers.
• Easy messaging portal within each virtual classroom.

Incentivized

• Content Authoring: Litmos has a good content authoring tool that provides options for designing engaging and interactive courses.
• Reporting: Litmos reporting tools and reporting engines are clear to understand, the come with useful features that allow for tracking completion, learning and engagement.
• Course Library: Litmos has an extensive course library that we can reorganize into learning pathways to accomplish set learning objectives for our team.
• Customer Support: We have seen Litmos Customer support improve over the time we have been customers. Not only are there helpful resources within the Litmos University, we also have access to skilled support from our Customer Success Manager and the Litmos Technical Team.

Incentivized

• Moodle's grade book works well. Assignments are integrated so the grades are recorded automatically.
• Moodle is customizable by administrators, so our version only gives us the options we need. NO Clutter.
• The discussion board offers several options for instructors that help with grading. I use "sum of points", but there are other options as well.

Incentivized

• Their integration with Big Blue Button was a bust for distance learning. Would be great to see them collaborate with Zoom or Google Meets.
• Their "feature request" process is slow and cumbersome at times because it relies on user "up votes" to get ideas addressed by the developers.
• They seem to have a lot of turn-over with their staff. We get a new Customer Success Manager far more frequently than with other vendors.

Incentivized

• Litmos' email automation leaves a lot to be desired. When using SAML single sign on, a user can forward a reminder email to a colleague and it will include the link for _their_ training, if the recipient completes the training it report as being completed by the sender.
• Litmos' functionality around assessments is terrible. It is impossible to give partial or weighted credit for a question during marking. It's impossible to undo a mistake in marking or go back to the question. Hotspot questions are not worth using. Learners entering a test again after completing but before marking is done will erase their attempt's ability to be marked. There is more that is just unacceptable here. We make tests using microsoft forms because it's easier and more accessible.
• Many group admins are also learners, and will so infrequently use their admin portals, that they should not default to admin.
• We have imports from our HR platform to Litmos, which is convenient. Occasionally someone gets set up twice, which is a problem with the intergration or stuff that helpdesk does. However, merging two learner records should not be a huge hassle of enumerating all of the courses and manually marking them complete. There should be a way to do this in the software.
• Reporting in general leaves a great deal to be desired. There should be some more controls for xAPI/tincan modules that allow us to customize the level of tracking there. Articulate Rise uses a manifest that gives the LMS what it needs to integrate, why can't we see interaction data from the eLearning there like we could with LRS statements? If I make a storyline block or have a rise interaction, I should be able to see all the elements folks click and what they get hung up on.
• Litmos should support standard Training and L&D measurement frameworks. There's no reason we shouldn't at least be able to have a dashboard for a course that includes survey data, assessments, boosts, and maybe a manual place to put in business impact KPIs. Think kirkpatrick/Phillips ROI.

Incentivized

• The interface is not very intuitive. You must know what you are looking for in order to navigate effectively.
• Although installation of Moodle is easy, it is a little more difficult to configure it with your other Learning tools. As an example, LDAP synchronization is a little difficult.
• The interface is a little dated, even though new releases keep coming out (which is great!) none of them really add value to the appearance of the platform.

Incentivized

The other LMS tools have fallen behind. One reason is they are not able to update their systems, features, toolsets in a timely manner. While other LMS providers release bug fixes and new features several times a year, schools struggle to install and implement them in a timely manner. It is not uncommon for a school to take 6 months to a year to fully install and implement new releases on other LMS platforms. With Canvas, those features are released every 3 weeks, and there is nothing for a school to do other than choose to turn them on once released. This has allowed Instructure to innovate faster, and get new features and tools to customers quicker. Other factors include great pricing, customer support, and the innovative way in which LTI is implemented in the tool.

Incentivized

For what we need in the very near future, Litmos does not offer us the required capability. Ideally, we are looking for an integrated LMS, coaching, mobile support and content creation platform. Litmos may have the LMS part covered but there are other platforms that do this better along with providing an integrated all-in-one service or at the very least support API integration with other vendors to meet our requirements.

Incentivized

We use it because it is what have committed to back in 2011. Perhaps Moodle will evolve and advance in a positive way that will alleviate most of our user-based gripes? Perhaps it will not appear to be as cost effective given the need for a certain level of engineering and support staff to maintain it at a future level of sustainability? It's hard to say. As an enterprise scale critical application, we like it, but don't love it. Our instructors don't particularly like it at all.

The functions in Canvas are well integrated and consistent across the application, and mostly intuitive. Overall navigation and setup is streamlined through integrated features and navigation. The feedback we've gotten from our program participants is that it is easy to learn to use. It also integrates well with third party software like Google Docs and Blackboard Collaborate web conferencing software

Incentivized

It's really easy to use. I just search the platform for my requirements, play a demo before downloading it, and then drag and drop it into my LMS. It couldn't be simpler. The only reason it isn't a 10 is that some courses don't have better summary descriptions or additional materials.

Incentivized

Moodle can be used on a tablet, on a mobile phone, and on a PC. It is easy to navigate for learners and figure out for administrators. The learners can easily complete tasks and the administrators can easily track completion. The last thing about Moodle that one may not realize is that it somewhat resembles Facebook in its layout. This means that users are already familiar with the interface and therefore they are more comfortable using it.

Incentivized

It's never been an issue. It's always good to go

Incentivized

Yes, Moodle is always available. We are self-hosted and Moodle is always up and available. The only time that it is not available is when we are upgrading it each semester. It is then down for just a few planned hours. That is in-between semesters and we let the faculty and students know. We do it on a Friday evening and it is back up within a few hours.

Incentivized

Never had any type of performance issues for Litmos

Incentivized

Moodle is an excellent LMS in relationship to any other one that I have seen or used. The pages load quickly and the reports complete in a reasonable time frame. Moodle has taken on Respondus, StudyMate, BigBlueButton, Turning Tech, Turnitin2, Certificates, Attendance, Tegrity, Questionnaire, Virtual Programming Lab, and Badges. All of these programs work right in with Moodle and do not cause any issues. Instructors may also use Camtasia and Snagit software as well as using webcams, downloading videos from the Internet, adding into books, or any of the many other areas within Moodle. Our instructors use the grade books without many problems and really don't ask questions much anymore. We upgrade Moodle every semester and are currently on 2.9+. Our instructors have basically learned to use most of the resources and activities.

Incentivized

I do not personally use Canvas support since we have a central office that helps us. However, our central office always has the answers we need and are always able to solve our issues - so I would assume that get great support from the Canvas team on their end. They also offer great training, which uses materials directly from Canvas

Incentivized

If I could give it a negative rating I would. Worst support from any program I have had. Everything is back and forth in the support ticket. The one time I tried to chat they could not support the question. Their support page is so full of sections and products I can never find anything I need, even with a customized home page. I was hopeful that once they left SAP support might improve but it has not. I don't even know who my account executive is. Nobody has ever reached out to me. I need someone to guide me through best practices for our company and there is nobody to do that.

Incentivized

Moodle is open source, and must be evaluated in that context, but one also has to provide a fair comparison to competing products with commercial backing. Support varies depending on the component of Moodle. Bug reports in Moodle Core that affect security or stability are dealt with promptly. Functionality requests or features not working smoothly may or may not be addressed, depending on whether the functionality desired matches the "vision" of Moodle HQ. The user community provides excellent support for initial installation and configuration, but more complex questions may go unanswered, unless they are noticed by someone who happens to know the answer. The support forum feature at the Moodle site (the same feature used within Moodle itself) does not provide granular subscription to topic discussions, apparently by design, and Moodle HQ seems resistant to changing this feature.

Incentivized

The training sessions were broken down into several days as well as different levels depending upon the knowledge of the user

Incentivized

It was a good overview of the platform, but of course it was more of a basic overview of how to use the platform. The team provided a good training, but I would of liked a better deep dive into some of the features.

Incentivized

The online tutorials and videos are very clear and addressed the issues/questions that I had about using the system.

Incentivized

Some of the best online training I've taken from any LMS platform. It was well put together and kept me engaged the entire time. It has a good amount of HR Compliance mixed with soft skills training that the team liked. Overall, it has a robust online suite of training that any company can use.

Incentivized

I have used a few sites and they were adequate but my best learning experience was face to face and hands on.

Incentivized

Once you purchase and sign the contract there is nothing to install or hardware to buy. You can almost immediately start using it and have courses up and going within weeks. We signed in December and had pilot courses online ready to go for the start of school in January

Incentivized

We have done two implementations. The first wasn't completed by me, but the second was. I had to do a lot of data migration across from the first system into the new instance. This was really time-consuming, and it would have been great to have had an option for someone else to have completed this for us. Learning about the tool has also been up to us, and whilst the content was good, it was also high level and broad, and then getting into the specifics of our setup was really just left to us to complete on our own and have a go. We got there, but probably could have been faster with some additional support from a consultant.

Incentivized

Find a partner who will work with you during the implementation process. Be sure to provide ample training for veteran users on the changes and for newbies on the overall product.

Incentivized

Canvas is more secure, has a cleaner design, and has more features. For the features, they have in common canvas still stacks up against [Smart school] by going for the extra mile. Besidfor e that, [the] canvas looks a lot more [professional] than [Smart school]. I didn't make the decision myself to get canvas instead of [Smart school] but I'm happy they did.

I made a choice of this tool because of great review message on internet about the advantage of litmos. Also as cost is concerned I saw it to be favourable to me more than other which are Abit expensive. Litmos also have intuitive user interface which made me to fall for it.

Incentivized

Blackboard has clear advantages in rubric management, and offers a content management system of its own. The largest barrier is cost for smaller or financially-disadvantaged organizations. However, as in any IT project, adequate resources must be made for even "free" software.

Incentivized

Pretty easy to scale this LMS and can be deployed companywide in all departments for us. The team's function allows you build separate teams that can easily be assigned specific courses, so it makes it much easier to deploy

Incentivized

Well, I administer Moodle for a dozen of our divisions and there is a wide range of flexibility between offerings. I have course instructors who use every module i their course, chock full of videos, pictures, links to web tools for synchronous sessions within the asynchronous course. I also have others who are content with a syllabus, a few pdfs, links to podcast lectures and a few simple assignments. No matter if your organization is big or small, or if your requirements are strict for credentialing or non-existent (for internal know-how), Moodle can accommodate you.

Incentivized

• Canvas has helped us provide a more robust online component to our courses.
• Canvas has helped us better adapt to a rapidly changing educational landscape.
• Canvas has reduced the time that we have to spend training faculty on how to use our learning management system.

Incentivized

• For one of our product lines, what used to require 8-10 onboarding calls now only needs two and we are aiming to get that down to just one or potentially none. Customers can learn on demand using the courses we have constructed for them and continue their learning live with trainers.
• By hosting all of our training in one place, we have made onboarding much more straightforward for employees — they can learn the product (same training we give customers) and also get their InfoSec and other training in one place.

Incentivized

• While it certainly takes more time to develop an online training vs a face-to-face we can offer the same content over and over again and meet a larger audience. There's no way we could have offered these trainings face-to-face to the same size audience. Economically it's just not feasible. Moodle allows us to share multiple trainings on a variety of topics over extended periods of time in a cost effective way.
• The impact on early interventionists is still being evaluated, but we do know that early interventionist now have more ways to access professional development than in the past. The ability to customize the registration page has allowed us to track which agencies in Virginia are having their staff participate and we can see which topics are favored above others.
• Other LMS's were far too costly. Aside from the monthly hosting fees (less than $200 a year), and the time it took to do the initial install and setup, Moodle is free. Once it's setup the only elearning costs are related to the development and creation of each training and then the setup of training on Moodle. This allows us to devote more time and money to the development and creation of more courses vs. the management of the system.
• Minimal tech support for the users is required and most requests are limited to lost/userid passwords. The course designer is able to manage tech support needs for the users because so few requests are received.

Incentivized